Vegan Chocolate & Blackberry Fudge Cake

And so we have left San Francisco. What a great time we have had in this city. Everyone has been friendly to us and we have found ourselves having long conversations with complete strangers on the streets and in food stores numerous times (which never happens in Sweden). We have constantly been eating good food and we even met a couple of new friends. And when we thought that the city couldn’t be sunnier or happier, the San Francisco Giants won the World Series in Baseball. Such a perfect ending.

Now we have rented a car and started driving down south. Highway 1 is beyond beautiful and we have made our first stop is Santa Cruz, but we’ll tell you more about that in our next post.

Before we left, we made this chocolate cake filled and topped with blackberries. Actually it’s not very difficult to make a normal chocolate cake, you can probably find 5 zillion good recipes on google and at least 70 on Martha Stewart. But our cake is made without eggs, butter, sugar and flour, which made everything a little bit more challenging. We tried three different versions of this cake before finding the right balance between fruit vs chocolate, sticky vs dry and sweet vs dark and rich.

In the end it feels like we nailed it. This cake is sticky on the inside, has got a quite fruity taste and a rich chocolate spread. It’s gluten free and it’s vegan. I wouldn’t go as far as saying that it’s healthy, but it is definitely more nutritious than your regular Martha Stewart cake.

Preheat the oven to 325° F / 175° C. Place walnuts in a food processor and until crunchy flour, add dates and pulse until mixed. Then add the rest of the ingredients and pulse everything until well combine, you might have to scrape down the sides with a spoon a couple of times. Add the blackberries and only pulse a few times (you want the berries in pieces but not completely dissolved). Pour the mixture into an 8-inch non-stick spring pan and bake it for 40 – 50 minutes.

Let the cake cool slightly before removing the spring pan. Meanwhile prepare the frosting. Melt the chocolate and pour into a blender and mix with the rest of the ingredients until smooth. Spread the frosting on top of the cooled chocolate cake and decorate with blackberries. Serve.

67 Comments

That sounds really delicious! I love recipes that give a healthy twist to old favourites. And Elsa is such a star! So gorgeous :-)
Drive carefully and looking forward to hearing all about Santa Cruz! xx

I am so glad you enjoyed your time in San Francisco. I really enjoyed reading about your adventures. I’m hoping to make my way there next summer. What a gorgeous cake. I think it would be the perfect treat for my Mom’s birthday next week. She is vegan and can’t have processed flours. It is like this was made for her. Thank you.

I am so glad you enjoyed your time in San Francisco. I really enjoyed reading about your adventures. I’m hoping to make my way there next summer. What a gorgeous cake. I think it would be the perfect treat for my Mom’s birthday next week. She is vegan and can’t have processed flours. It is like this was made for her. Thank you.

Definitely going to try this cake!
I love reading about your journey. I traveled trough California last year and it was such an amazing experience. Everytime I hear ‘California dreaming’ on the radio, my heart breaks a little. Hope I can go back soon. Enjoy the rest of your trip and keep those stories and recipes coming!

WoW!!! looks delicious! and I bet it tastes delicious too.
Elsa seems to be having a lot of fun with those blackberries, she looks so funny! ^^ :D (always puts a smile on me and my face, and I’d guess on yours as well)
Drive safely ;)

If only I could find good tasting berries now, I would absolutely make this cake. I suppose I could leave the blackberries out, but it just wouldn’t be the same. Regardless, the cake looks wonderful and your photos are beautiful as always!

It looks delicious!
I have discovered your blog through a friend who is a fan. I love it.
Have you think about spending time in France during your trip. I know it’s a little chauvinistic but this is a beautiful country.

Wow – Avocado in the frosting? Awesome idea … will definitely be giving this a try sometime. I made chocolate cupcakes just last night actually. If I’d seen this one day earlier I would have loved to have given this a try :)

Yesterday was my birthday and it was just the excuse I needed to make this cake. First of all, let me clarify why exactly it needs to be baked–or more accurately, how did it even get in the oven? I could have eaten all the batter as it was like pudding :-). Mmmm! I managed to get most of it in the pan and baked. The result was a yummy fudge like cake. Oh it is just delightful. I used frozen blackberries and it was fine. I made the mistake of eating a little slice for breakfast and I am thinking maybe I should save it for a proper dessert! Perhaps I’ll go run around the block two or three times now :-).

You seem to have missed the cold weather here in Santa Cruz. Admittedly, we’re a little spoiled–it gets down to 52 degrees F and we act like it’s the Ice Age or something. Brrrr-it’s chilly here! Hopefully you’re heading south to the warmer areas of CA!

That’s a good idea to use avocado instead of butter, isn’t it? What do you think if I try to bake any other cake which needs butter and use avocado?
However, this cake I will try very soon – just not with blackberries, but with blackcurrants.
Tusind tak

Just to say that you 3 are a total inspiration and it is so so wonderful to have stumbled upon your blog a few months ago. We love your food and it’s been so fun reading your blog. Thanks for taking the time to put this together… we all really really appreciate it. Happy New Year!!
ps. I am making this cake for my best friend’s daughter’s Christening tomorrow… we are always looking for good vegan desserts that aren’t full of artificial and alternative (e.g. fake cheese) ingredients.
Thanks!!!

I made this cake with my friends and we were blown away by how sinfully delicious it was! The chocolate frosting made with avocado, genius! The frosting was truly amazing. I’m making it again today for a dinner party. Thank you!

Hi Zita, sorry for the late response. And how unfortunate that your cake didn’t come out right. Here are a few tricks that might help you.
1. I am guessing that you can blame your problems on the dates. One of the most important things when making this recipe, is to use fresh dates and not dried. They are a lot softer than dried dates, and shouldn’t be a challenge to the food processor. When you mix them they turn in to as sticky sweet dough. If you can’t find fresh dates, you can soak the dried dates for a couple of hours to make them softer.
2. If you use frozen berries, make sure that you take them out of the freezer about an hour before you use them.
3. Before you throw the blackberries in the dough you want it to be completely mixed (no lumps). If it feels too dry and firm you can add some more apple sauce or oil to it. If you are still having problems with lumps in the dough, maybe it is your food processor that is not strong enough.

You can substitute 4 tbsp applesauce with 1 egg, if you’re not a vegan. If you do not eat eggs, you might want to try using starch, like tapioca or Psyllium seed Husks I haven’t tried that but it might work.

Amazing. Truly amazing. My family of egg/butter/flour/cream lovers inhaled the cake. The blackberries we bought were super tart so I made a blackberry-maple compote to serve on top. I also had individual springform pans which I used so everyone had their mini-cakes. Baked for 30-33 minutes instead of the 40-50. Thank you so much for your recipes, they are truly an inspiration!

I just made this delicious cake! It was super easy and came out perfect! Thx so much for this delicious recipe!
xx Caroline
PS: I used raspberries instead of blackberries, because they didnt have them, and it came out fine!

Hi,
what do you think about leaving the cake raw??? As I can see, all the ingredients can be eaten as they are, aren’t they?
I thought to take it in the fridge to let it firm up.
What is your opinion?
Thanks,
Ágnes

This recipe looks fantastic and I can’t wait to try it. I’m pretty sure pure cocao power has no fat, right? Can you substitute the dark chocolate in the frosting with the powder? I’m trying find deserts that are healthy and don’t have chocolate in them, so…thanks!

I made this yesterday for a birthday and used a combination of blackberries, raspberries and pomegranate seeds – it was so delicious! Everyone loved it and were shocked by the tasty avocado frosting. So moist and dense like a torte. Thanks for a delicious dessert recipe without added sugar or flours, what a treat. Leftovers for breakfast :)

Dear David, Luise and Elsa,
I am new to your blog, and in the blissfully happy state of discovery. I am impressed, I just love your foods, your writings, and…you three!

Last night a friend brought me a box full of freshly picked, wild blackberries that she found on her walk in the woods. So I typed “blackberry” in the search of your blog, aaaaand…..

…the base of this cake is just sitting in the oven, 15 more minutes to go. This is the first vegan, flour free cake that I am baking, and…gosh, I would have never believed that this cake would actually RISE!!! But it did, and the whole house is fragrant with it, can’t wait to get it out and prepare the glazing. Thanks a million for your recipes, your creativity, your wonderful ideas, please keep on publishing!

I served this cake at a party and it was absolutely amazing! If in doubt – make it, you won’t regret it. I have already thought of several occasions where this cake would be awesome, I literally can’t wait to dig in to it again!

I just made this and it’s absolutely gorgeous. I substituted almond flour for the walnuts and added a pinch of vanilla too, as well as using blueberries as they were more affordable. The result is absolutely gorgeous – very heavy, but I comfort myself with the idea that it’s not THAT unhealthy ;) Absolutely love your blog, it’s giving me a lot of cooking inspiration. Thank you!

Made this wonderful dessert for a Gourmet Gals group I belong to and the theme this month was Healthy or Decadent? Everyone was really surprised to hear the ingredients of this delicious treat and I shared the recipe with everyone. We have a few members who must go gluten free and were delighted that they could enjoy every morsel. I didn’t change a thing, it was perfect!

Hey, we’re looking to cook this for a friend’s birthday tomorrow. It looks lovely! However, she’s allergic to all nuts except cashews, and vegan. Can we substitute cashews for the walnuts. Or buckwheat flowers?
Thanks!